A Stroll Through Kalos
by Bokkun
Summary: Two vastly different people, with different problems between them, decide to travel together for protection and company. Can they help each other?
1. Chapter 1 Stir Crazy

Hello! Bokkun here. I just thought I'd mention that this story _A Stroll Though Kalos,_ used to be posted on one of my other accounts, _Jon Slade._ Why's it here? Because I started using this account again. Why am I mentioning it at all? Plausible deniability.

With nothing else to say, here's the story.

* * *

Chapter 1: Stir Crazy

It was a nice day. The sun was high in the sky, and Olivia couldn't feel better if she wanted to. She was still feeling adrenalin associated with starting one's very own pokémon adventure.

She walked through a forest, a spring in her step and her pokémon partner walking behind her.

Olivia glanced back at the pokémon and said, "It's a good day for walk, isn't it Zander?"

She wasn't expecting him to look so mad.

Zander's features were distorted into what could only be called a scowl. His eyes were cold and tinged with a look of betrayal.

 _"Why did you lose?"_ The pokémon's voice was soft as it spoke, and his lack of apparent anger disturbed her far more than any outburst could.

"I…It was a-" She stumbled over her words, maybe shocked that Zander was talking, maybe just guilty.

 _"I trusted you. You'd keep me safe, and I'd keep you safe."_ Olivia felt tears sting her eyes at his words, " _That's what I always thought. Maybe I wasn't good enough? Or maybe_ you _weren't good enough?"_

At that point Olivia was crying, but she couldn't help but get mad at Zander's words, "I tried my best!"

 _"And your 'best' wasn't good enough!"_ Zander yelled.

Before either could say another word, a shadowy figure appeared behind Zander.

"No…"

Though she couldn't make out the shadow's important facial features, she could still see his smirk. His brilliant white teeth, as he knelt down and picked up Zander, who didn't even struggle.

"No! What are you doing, he's mine!"

 **"Not anymore."** His voice was deep, and with that and a laugh he walked away.

Olivia moved to chase after him, but she couldn't manage to move her feet. She couldn't take a single step.

"No! Come back! Please…" Olivia fell to the cold hard ground. All she could do was sob.

* * *

Olivia's eyes snapped open and she sprang up right. She looked around, and calmed. She was back in her room, in Vaniville Town.

Tears once again found their way to her eyes. She pulled the quilt around her, hugged her knees to her chest and just sat there and cried for a while.

She didn't like that dream. She'd been having variations of it on and off for the last two years. Ever since...Zander.

She tried to calm her breathing. She hated the sound she made when she sobbed, and she'd do anything not to hear it now.

She turned her head to her night stand, and automatically pressed the button on top of her clock that would make it light up so she could read it. The purple flash of light stung her eyes slightly, but she could tell that it was 1:13AM.

 _'I wonder if Mom's still awake.'_ She left the comfort of her covers, and tip-toed to the door.

Olivia was a messy person, more so in recent years than before, and she didn't want to trip on something that might have been left between her bed and the door.

It also helped her not hurt herself on Lego playset she just stepped on. It still annoyed her, but she didn't yell out.

She made it to her door, and realised that now she had another problem.

This door creaked. If her mom was asleep, it wouldn't cause any major problems for her, but despite her mood she still felt mischievous, and wanted to sneak up on an unsuspecting parental unit.

With that in mind she placed her hand around the door handle, turned it, and slowly pulled it back. She didn't open it fully and passed through when it was barely halfway.

Olivia let out a breath of relief. The door had remained silent, and she could hear the sound of the television echoing up from the living room downstairs. She was fairly certain that this meant her mom was awake, as she was the kind of person that was obsessed with saving money, even if it was only pennies. She would've turned the television off.

She stepped lightly down the hallway, came to the stairs and swiftly glided down them without a single sound being made. She let herself smile for a moment, she'd been working on her sneaking for the last seven years.

She came to a stop on the bottom step. From the living room you couldn't see someone walking up or down the stairs, but you could see them when they stepped off the stairs. This was because the stairs were behind one of the living room's walls, but the start of the stairs weren't.

Regardless, Olivia glanced around the wall, holding onto the stairs' rail for support.

Her mom was sitting on the couch, from behind it looked like she was sitting on the far right side. Olivia grinned a Cheshire cat grin. Her mom's choice of seat made it easy for Olivia to sneak up on her.

Olivia repressed a giggle. She crouched down, till her hands touched the floor, and she crawled across the floor towards her mom.

The mom in question remained focused on her television. A movie was on, about talking pokémon being unbearably cute things. Like playing in a park, falling over each other into a pile of laughing fur, or simply smiling at the camera.

She enjoyed cute things like that, and Olivia knew that it had her mom's full attention.

As soon as Olivia was behind her mom, she got up from all fours and tip-toed once more and when Olivia was right behind her…

She slowly placed a hand on her mom's shoulder and squeezed whilst saying, **"What'cha watching?"**

She screamed. Olivia found herself finally letting out her fiendish giggles. Her mom turned around, calmed down enough to notice that it was her daughter that was doing the giggling, and gave her the sharpest glare a parent could give.

This didn't stop Olivia's giggles, however.

"Didn't I ever teach you that it's rude to give your elders heart attacks?" She said sternly. Olivia looked up in mock thought, then let a playful smile find its way to her features.

"Nope!"

The mom rolled her eyes. She glanced down at her wristwatch, turned her head in confusion, and then looked back at her child.

"Didn't you go to bed a couple of hours ago?"

That destroyed Olivia's mood. Just like that her mom went from scolding to nurturing as she paused her movie and got Olivia to sit down on the couch.

Olivia sat on the left side, her mom sat on the right facing her. Her mom let out a sigh before making eye-contact with her daughter.

"Was it _that_ dream?"

Olivia nodded.

"Which one?"

"The one where Zander says I failed him. We get into an argument, then he gets stolen."

Her mom nodded, then looked up in thought.

"It wasn't your fault though. You couldn't have known that someone would be waiting at the exit of that forest."

"But I should have been able to handle it! I was supposed to be his trainer." Olivia looked down, dejected.

Her mom was silent for a moment. Olivia eventually looked up at her and noticed the expression on her face. Her mom was thinking. That just left Olivia waiting for whatever her mom had come up with.

"Maybe…you should try being a trainer again."

Olivia stared at her mom with wide-eyed horror, "After I let Zander get stolen?!"

Olivia looked away, dejected.

"I don't deserve to be a trainer."

Olivia felt her mom put her hands on her shoulders. Olivia looked into her brown eyes, and they were visibly annoyed.

"Stop that. You're not a pro. You're not a pokémon master. I'm sure if Zander were here he'd want you to know that he doesn't blame you. Now, you've wanted to be a trainer ever since you were three. I know it still hurts, but you're never going to get better if you stay here hiding from the world."

Olivia stared at her for a while before nodding. She didn't smile, though.

"You might be right. So I'll try." Olivia got up from the couch and quickly walked towards the kitchen. Her mom was a little surprised by this, but just watched for the moment.

Olivia opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of pecha berries. Her features scrunched up in thought, before nodding that this was the right item.

She turned around and absently picked up a small knife, and placed it on top of the carton. Finally she came across the final item she would need. She hadn't touch that item in two years.

Her hand bag. She placed that strap around her shoulder, and opened the bag. As she suspected, the pokéballs that she had bought two year previous were still here now. She placed the carton and the knife in her bag.

She finally had everything. She thought about whether or not she should go change out of her pyjamas, but decided that she didn't care at the moment.

She did put some boots on however.

She was about to step out of the door, but her mom felt that she should say something first.

"Don't you think it's a little late?"

Olivia glanced back with a small smile on her face, "If I wait into tomorrow I won't feel the drive I have now."

Her mom shrugged, and turned back to the television, "Be careful then."

Olivia nodded then stepped outside.

* * *

The closest place to Vaniville that had wild pokémon was up past Aquacorde, which was a bit of a jog away.

It was a manageable distance, in fact you could probably make the trip around four times in an hour.

First Oliva ran through Route 1, a place that had a stone pathway going from start to finish, and no pokémon _at all_ hiding in the trees or grass. This was slightly annoying to Olivia, but she pressed on. The problem with Route 1 was pure distance.

Aquacorde was a bit more time consuming, for different reasons.

Aquacorde was a pretty place, with its stone floors, its fountains, the street lamps that allowed her to see how pretty it was, even at night. Even the buildings had their own style that was a pleasant change from Vaniville.

Except that everything looked the same.

She took a left, she ended up back in the centre of town. She took a right, she ended up back in the centre of town. She kept walking straight, only changing direction when absolutely needed… she ended up back in Route 1.

Eventually, she had to ask someone that happened to be out. She would have wondered just _why_ he had been out so late if she weren't so embarrassed that someone had seen her in her nightwear.

His teasing didn't help much, if at all.

"Right, what you want to do is turn around, walk back through Route 1, then go to beddy byes."

Olivia gritted her teeth, but didn't lose her temper. He wasn't worth it, "Thanks for the advice, but I'd really rather know the way to Route 2."

He smirked, and pointed across the street.

"Follow that road, love. Leads straight to Route 2. Watch yourself now." He winked, and walked away laughing deeply. Olivia wasn't sure how much she could trust a man that walked away laughing after giving someone advice, but she didn't have much choice.

She followed the road, and after five minutes of taking in the sights, walking straight past the odd amount of people that were out so late and crossing a bright over a river, she found herself in front of Route 2's sign.

She smiled and walked in till she was deep enough that the pokémon would find her, but not so deep that she couldn't see Aquacorde.

She kneeled down on the ground, ignoring how wet the grass was, and sat crossed legged. She opened her bag and pulled out the knife, the carton of pecha berries and a torch that had been in there since her first adventure.

She didn't know if its batteries had drained or not and she wished she had checked before she left home.

She flicked the switch on the torch and amazingly it still worked. She placed the torch between her interlocked legs, and now she could see a tiny bit around her.

She opened the carton, and pulled out two pecha berries. She then grabbed the knife and proceeded to chop one of the berries into bite sized pieces.

She placed a piece in her mouth as she waited. She didn't like pecha berries, but she didn't hate them either.

She liked pecha berry cakes, though. Marvellous invention of modern cooking right there.

She also knew that several pokémon enjoyed the taste of something sweet, some more than others.

She was also desperate. If this didn't work, and she couldn't attract a pokémon, how else was she going to get one?

Buy it? Pay someone else to catch it? Hope and pray? Her options were limited.

This train of thought eventually caused her to wonder how primitive man first tamed wild pokémon without the aid of a pokéball and another pokémon to combat it.

Well lost in her thoughts, a pokémon had smelled the scent of the carved pecha berry. He slowly crept closer, till he realised that the berry was next to a human.

He considered giving up, but in the past he had managed to get free food from humans because they thought he was cute. At least, that's what he told himself. They might have felt bad for him, to which he would happy take their food, and leave.

He took a chance, walking towards the human.

Olivia was dragged out of her mind when she heard the grass rustle. She turned to look and saw a Zigzagoon. They made eye contact, and Olivia was worried that that might make it run away from her.

To her surprise and delight it continued towards her, looked her up and down, then turned its head to the sliced up pecha berry. It proceeded to nod its head towards the berry, almost as if it were asking.

That was till Olivia realised that it _was_ asking. _'I should really do some research into how smart pokémon are.'_

"You have some manners, there. Here you go." She held out her hand with a piece of pecha berry. The Zigzagoon was hesitant for about three seconds before it took the piece into its mouth.

Afterwards it did the Zigzagoon equivalent of a smile.

"Want some more?" Zigzagoon nodded its head. Olivia was surprised by this. She just sat there, staring for a moment.

Zigzagoon, for its part, sat there patiently, simply waiting for the human to do something.

"Can you…understand me?" Zigzagoon stared at the human for a moment, blinked its eyes, and then sighed.

Then it nodded.

Olivia's mouth fell at that. She absently held her hand out again, and Zigzagoon took its prize.

"Are you a boy or a girl? Nod once for boy and twice for girl." Olivia just wanted to test this now. She found it interesting.

Zigzagoon nodded once. It, or rather he, found this human puzzling. Then again he couldn't tell the human's gender either.

"Wow. Okay then, this might make this easier. I was wondering if you'd like to join me on my journey?"

Zigzagoon looked up at the human, as he thought about the question. If he went with this human, they'd make him powerful. More powerful than he could be on his own. That also might mean more pecha berries.

It almost nodded at that thought. But then it wondered if it could trust the human or not.

 _'I can always run if things go south.'_

He smiled and nodded once more for the human.

Olivia gave a cheer. She honestly couldn't believe that her plan had worked. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pokéball.

"Do you understand what I'm about to do?" Zigzagoon nodded, but walked away. He didn't walk far, he just decided to eat another pecha berry before he was caught.

Olivia laughed softly at this as she pressed the pokéball lightly to Zigzagoon's head. He turned into a bright crimson light, and entered the pokéball.

The ding of capture followed shortly.

Despite how happy she was, she didn't have time to celebrate as she stuffed all her stuff back into her hand bag.

She got up and let out a sigh as she turned back to Aquacorde. Now she had to find her back through.

She wouldn't let that spoil her mood, though.


	2. Chapter 2: Endless Interruption

Chapter 2: Endless Interruption

Olivia had made it home at around 2:30AM, which was a little later than intended. Regardless, the first thing she did was release Zigzagoon from the confines of his pokéball. From a certain moral standpoint, she'd never really liked the concept of pokéballs.

Zigzagoon looked around the room, nervously twitching till he realised that there was no threat around him.

"You okay, Zigzagoon?"

"Zag." He nodded at her.

"Well follow me, we have some stuff we need to sort out before we do anything else."

Zigzagoon was confused, but followed her anyway. This was the first time he'd been inside a human's home, so everything was interesting and new. He got side tracked just staring at a lamp in the corner.

Olivia found it cute for a moment, but eventually decided to just pick him up and carry him to her room.

She flicked the switch that was next to the door, turning on the main light of the room.

Zigzagoon had to blink his eyes a couple of times to get used to the sudden light, but then he took in every detail of the new room.

Pieces of cloth that the human's referred to as clothes were thrown around in no easily identifiable order. There were some t-shirts resting on top of a chair, there were some jeans just on the floor, there was even something that Zigzagoon recognised as panties hanging from a laptop's screen.

Zigzagoon also noticed several wrappers just thrown around, once again managing to get everywhere.

The floors were polished wood, and when Zigzagoon looked at the parts that were clear of his human's mess he could see his reflection. He found that…fascinating.

He jumped out of her arms to look at the last thing in the room that interested him. He had quite a time avoiding the debris in the room. In the end he didn't manage it, as he stepped on some strange human toy that seemed to only exist for the purpose of inflicting pain.

Why else would it have so many bits stinking out and be placed on the floor like that?

Finally he managed to get to what he wanted to look at. He jumped up on a perch, and just sat there and looked out the window. He could see a little bit of his reflection, and he could also see dots of light outside.

 _'How do humans manage to be so…interesting?'_

"Ziggy? You okay?" Olivia was a little worried. Zigzagoon had just spent the last five or so minutes just looking at everything with no emotion. It was kind of unnerving.

Zigzagoon glanced back at her, and in an attempt to imitate human expression, raised a brow and turn its head to the side.

"Zig zig?"

Olivia smiled back, "What, the name? I can't just walk around calling you Zigzagoon, now can I? That'd be like you just calling me human with your pokémon friends."

Zigzagoon stared at her for a second and wondered whether or not she could read his mind. He hoped not, or this was going to get weird fast.

"So…do you like it? The name, I mean." He thought about it. It seemed like a name that several people could have come up with. Then again, he did like the idea of having his own name, even if it was such a simple one.

So he nodded.

Olivia did a little jump for joy. She rushed up to him, somehow managing to subconsciously avoiding every hazard in front of her.

She leaned down till she was eye level with Zigzagoon and with smile she said, "Hi Ziggy, I'm Olivia!"

Zigzagoon, or rather Ziggy, thanked every legendary it knew the name of for that information. She hadn't introduced herself when they first met, then he'd been inside a pokéball for around an hour, then she let him walk around by himself in this room.

 _'What even is this room? I mean it smells like…'_ Ziggy's thought trailed off. He shook his head, not believing how long it took him to notice that.

Looking back at her he put on a smile, "Zagoon!"

Olivia's smile faded slightly as she watched Ziggy's apparent happiness.

Ziggy tilted his head to the side in confusion. He wasn't a master of human expression, but he had much more practice then most wild pokémon.

 _'She seems really upset.'_ Ziggy kept watching as tears made their way to her eyes, _'Well, that came out of nowhere.'_

Ziggy looked up at her, hopefully making himself look worried, "Zig, zagoon?"

Olivia looked down at him and his concerned eyes and felt sad, she must have been confusing him with how she went from happy to sad so fast.

"Sorry Ziggy. Just remembering a friend. You sort of remind me of him, as strange as that is." Ziggy just kept a raised brow, but Olivia didn't say more on the matter.

"I might tell you about him later. But for now, we should sleep. I just wanted you to know that tomorrow we'll be doing some training. We'll go back to Route 2 and we're only leaving if you can handle yourself, okay?"

Ziggy could only nod, before turning back to the window. He sat there, waiting, before turning back to Olivia who had taken her boots off and searching for something under her bed.

 _'What is she doing now?'_ Ziggy wondered to himself. He was just waiting for her to put him back to his ball, so why was she taking her sweet time with it?

Olivia knew that looking under her bed would cause some…memories to crop up, but she set those feelings aside as she picked through the impressive collection of junk that she'd amassed in fourteen years of life.

She eventually found what she was looking for. It was a small basket, which was padded on the inside. The fabric inside used to have a yellow star blue sky background, but it had since faded. Olivia could still vaguely make it out.

She gave it a sad smile for a moment before she gestured for Ziggy to walk over.

Ziggy sighed, and jumped from the windowsill. He wasn't too pleased to have to walk across this room again, but despite his near uncontrollable desire to drift from left to right, he managed to make it to Olivia without stepping on anything.

 _'I deserve a freaking medal for this.'_ Ziggy thought as he rolled his eyes.

Much to his annoyance Olivia started laughing as he zigzagged around the room. He gave her a glare, which didn't seem to help calm her down at all.

"Your annoyance only increases my amusement!" Olivia said through her giggles. She managed to stop for a moment and place the basket on the floor next to her bed. Once again she gestured for Ziggy to come to her.

He walked up next to her, annoyance still blatantly present on his face. He looked at the basket, then back to Olivia, then back to the basket. He was stumped.

Olivia was just looking at him as he continued to wait, before once again just picking him up and placing him in the basket.

"Zig?" Ziggy was confused. Wasn't he supposed to be a pokéball right now?

"This is a basket. You'll be sleeping in it, okay?"

Ziggy nodded his head, still rather confused. From what he heard from other pokémon, humans mostly just kept there pokémon in pokéballs till it was time to fight or eat. But Olivia was apparently going to let him stay out of his ball and actually sleep in a makeshift bed?

 _'I don't know how to process this.'_

Well Ziggy was pondering just who his trainer was, she had sneaked over to the light switch and flicked it off.

She then managed to navigate her way back to her bed in the dark, without stepping on anything. Ziggy could see in the dark and he didn't think he could manage such an achievement.

Once she was under the covers she was out like a light. Ziggy, despite himself, followed shortly.

* * *

"What do you think, Ziggy?" He glanced at her. She'd been talking nonstop for quite a while now.

Apparently she hadn't given much thought to her outward appearance for the last two years. Ziggy had started piecing little titbits of information ever since last night, _and something_ had happened to Olivia.

Regardless of what deep effects this had on her as a person, she was currently more focused on how she had absolutely no fashion sense at the current moment.

What was she currently wearing? White tracksuit bottoms, a plain black t-shirt, and some red running shoes. He had nodded along with her for every piece of clothing she wore, and they'd been there for a while now.

Did she want to look cute? Tough? Awesome? She couldn't decide, and Ziggy didn't care.

But not now. Now she was wearing a red hat. It matched her shoes sure, but it also hid most of her short choppy black hair.

To a zigzagoon the quality of one's fur was most important, at least in the area of finding a potential mate. With that thought progress, the idea of a hat just baffled him.

So, he shook his head.

Olivia looked puzzled at this, "Really? You don't like it?"

Ziggy answered with a quick shake of his head.

Olivia was surprised. He was so quiet and so invested in his own world, that actually getting an opinion out of him was impressive.

She took the hat off and looked at it. She grew sad for a moment, but repressed it.

In that moment she decided that she wasn't a hat person anymore.

She looked herself over without the hat.

 _'I don't like my hair, too short.'_ She shrugged, _'I suppose that's easy enough to fix.'_

She glanced at Ziggy with a smile, "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go!"

 _'Finally!'_ Ziggy thought as he jumped up from his resting position. His legs were falling asleep, all the dead was agony.

He followed behind Olivia, leaving the dumpster death trap that was her room. He was surprised that he hadn't noticed that mirror last night.

He chalked it up to being an unimportant item when compared to the window with its dual reflective and see-through nature.

Olivia was now in a hurry. She barely managed to grab her hand bag on the way out, and she only did that because the bag had a number of supplies in it.

Leaving Vaniville was a quick process, walking through Route 1 took a little while because Ziggy had to pause to look at stuff.

In his defence, he'd never seen nor felt a stone pathway before. Which was interesting. He was also unnerved to find that there wasn't a single pokémon lifeform in the general area.

It was like walking through what should have been a busy city and everything being quiet. Ziggy shivered, and ran ahead of Olivia, wanting to leave the lifelessness that was Route 1.

Olivia was cheerfully surprised. She was quickly getting used to Ziggy's need to pause and look at things. It annoyed her no end, but she figured she might as well get used to his quirks.

She was sure he was doing the same in his own weird way.

Finally, they left Route 1, but now there was a new problem that Olivia hadn't planned for.

Ziggy was now in a completely new town. Vaniville had some interesting buildings, but it was mostly nature. Ziggy could relate to that, so he didn't over react.

Aquacorde was nothing at all like anything Ziggy was used to.

One would wonder why he'd never ventured towards the giant bridge, but maybe it didn't interest him at the time.

Regardless, in the here and now, Ziggy had ran up to a lamp post. It was day time, so the lamp wasn't on.

Because of this Ziggy couldn't figure out what it was for. He turned back to Olivia, and nudged his head towards the lamp post.

She was confused for a moment, but quickly gathered what he was asking.

"That's a street lamp. They give us a light source at night." Ziggy turned back to the lamp. He shook his head, a habit he noticed he was falling into.

 _'Humans…'_ He sighed.

Seeing that her job of explaining was done, Olivia continued walking through the streets of Aquacorde. Because it was day, she hadn't gotten nearly as lost as she had yesterday.

They finally managed to navigate their way to the street that would lead them back to Route 2. Before they could walk down it both trainer and pokémon got distracted by the same thing.

"He's a thief!" A woman was yelling. There was a small crowd gathering around her, and because it was abnormal Ziggy wanted to see. He made this clear by walking towards it.

Olivia sighed, but followed him. The closer they got the more interesting she felt it was going to be.

Despite the crowd the important players in the argument were very clear.

Three women, one ten year old boy.

One of those women was an officer Jenny, whose appearance was basically the same as all other officer Jenny's on the whole planet. Well, a select few could tell them apart, but that was neither here nor there.

Officer Jenny stood in between another woman, who had a combination of brown hair and eyes, and had her arms around the child protectively.

The child in question looked a lot like the woman protecting him, so Olivia assumed that he was her child.

That left the last woman, who had blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Olivia thought she looked rather pretty. It was just hard to tell because of the scowl on her features.

The blonde woman pointed a finger at the child, "That's my son's jacket! No one else owns a jacket like that in this town!"

Now that it was pointed out Olivia looked at the jacket. The main colour was black, and it had this green trim that went down the arms, and up into the centre of the body. It looked pretty cool, for a ten year old anyway.

Officer Jenny gave the blonde a sceptical look.

"Miss, how could you know that your son is the only boy with that jacket? They made more than one of it, ya know?"

The blonde woman did not take kindly to being talked down to, so to save face she took a quick breath.

Then she smirked as she focused on the mother of the boy.

"Do you recall buying that jacket? Any idea how much it costs?"

The mother shook her head, but surprisingly the boy nodded his head.

"It costs exactly 20 potions and 14 pokéballs." The entire crowd silenced at that, some trying to calculate the amount, others just surprised that he had spoken.

Olivia whistled in amazement, as she stared at the blonde, "You dropped £88 on a jacket?"

The blonde turned towards Olivia, rather annoyed.

"Is there something wrong with wanting my son to have nice clothes?"

Olivia shook her head, "No, but all together it does make this rather odd. Why does that boy have your son's jacket? Why did he mention the cost of the jacket in such an odd way, and why are you making such a public display instead of just talking to the mother of the potential thief in private?"

The blonde stared at Olivia with a blank expression on her face, "Do you always put so much thought into things that are of no concern to you?"

Olivia shrugged, "I don't know, do you always go and make your business public?"

Ziggy had sat there, watching the back and forth between his trainer and the blonde woman he didn't know.

 _'Is this just going to be my life now? Watching the pointless ramblings of countless humans around me?'_ Ziggy sighed.

The blonde woman stared at Olivia, before smirking once more.

"How would you like to make some quick money?" The crowd let a unified, "What?" at that.

The blonde pointed towards Route 2, and therefore, she pointed at Santalune Forest.

"My son, Amaury, started his _pokémon journey,"_ She said the words like they were poison, "Just today. Left a couple hours ago. I want you to go find him, bring him back so he can tell us that that monster," She stopped to point at the brown hair boy again, "Stole his jacket."

Seeing that this was getting out of hand, Officer Jenny stepped in, "Don't you think that's a little excessive?"

"Can it, Jenny." Olivia said quickly, all business at this point, "How much we talking about, lady?"

* * *

"See, this way we can do two things. Make the money, that we are totally gonna need later, AND we get to train along the way. Get it?" Olivia said in a shaky voice as they walked through Santalune Forest.

Ziggy nodded absently as he tackled yet another bug-type till fainting. He knew they would get better later, but he still liked to call what he did killing.

His kill list was pretty high at the moment. He was pretty happy about that part.

As Ziggy thought about back to the reason they had come into the forest in the first place, however, he thought what he had been thinking ever since last night.

 _'Humans are odd.'_

* * *

 ** _To be continued_**

Hmm. I know the money is wrong. It's just...easier this way. Anyways, thanks for reading, review and good night.


	3. Chapter 3: A Slight Misunderstanding

Chapter 3: A Slight Misunderstanding

Past Route 2 and Aquacorde Town there was a forest called Santalune. The forest was poplar with beginner trainers for a number of reasons.

The pokémon within were mostly weak, and made both good training and good candidates for a future team.

There was also the fact that other trainers hung around there, making it a good place to test and sharpen one's skills.

Never mind the fact that the forest was between Routes 2 and 3, therefore being between Aquacorde Town and the city that the forest was named for, Santalune.

Around an hour ago, a young boy of ten called Amaury entered Santalune forest, with the main goal of getting to Santalune City so he could rest.

Unfortunately for him…he was far too pragmatic with his dealings with other people.

Amaury had left home in a black tracksuit, with a green trim. His shoes matched his tracksuit, and his black cap even had a green feather pin to keep with the theme.

He also had a medium sized backpack hanging from his shoulders.

Now he was dressed in brown shorts and a white vest. His shoes and hat remained unchanged. His mom had made him pack spare clothes for later, and despite the fact that he was annoyed with her at the time, he had to thank her for her persistence now.

Why wasn't he wearing his tracksuit?

Well walking through Route 2, he had come across a brown haired boy. He knew the boy, they had lived in the same town for most of their lives. He was called Ronald.

Ronald waved at Amaury as he walked closer, in that pleasant way you do when it's someone you know and don't hate.

As he got closer however Ronald's mouth went into an 'O' shape. Amaury sighed, already knowing what the next words out of Ronald's mouth would be.

"Dude, those clothes are awesome! I wish my mom bought me stuff like that." Ronald had turned away, a look of childish envy on his face.

Not that Amaury was much better. His eyes reflected childish annoyance, but only his eyes. In honesty, he didn't much like the clothes his mom bought him. He didn't like wearing them and they drew too much attention.

In that moment Amaury had an idea. He recalled smiling cheekily at Ronald, who looked back at him with a confused glint to his eye.

"They are pretty cool, huh?" He had said well making poses that showed off how cool the clothes were. He knew he had achieved his goal when Ronald started scowling.

"Just cause your richer then me doesn-" Ronald started yelling, and then Amaury knew he had him.

"Now hold on a minute! Wealth isn't just coins, you know. It's also…resources."

Over the next five minutes the two boys worked out a trade. Amaury knew how much his clothes cost, and had agreed to trade them for the same cost in pokéballs and pokémon medical aid items.

In the end Ronald could only afford the jacket, but he still wanted it. He ended up giving Amaury 20 potions and 14 pokéballs, and the boy happily parted with his black tracksuit jacket.

This wasn't the last time either.

Later, when he was in the forest, he found a black haired boy that like his tracksuit bottoms, and traded him them for several burn heals and couple oran berries.

He stunk into a bush and changed out of the track suit bottom, and into the shorts. He then folded them up and handed them to the boy.

Then they parted ways.

Around this point Amaury realised the problem with trades like this. At first he had managed to place all the potions and pokéballs into his backpack, but he didn't have any room for the burn heals. He had managed with the berries, though.

His pokémon companion, a Plusle called Angel, had watched these trades with nothing but a bored look in his eye. But now, he felt like expressing his opinion on the matter.

"Plusle." He said in a condescending tone, or at least something Amaury recognised as condescending.

"Yeah, I know." He grumbled out, trying to keep hold of all the burn heals.

"Plusle." Angel said with a little more of a sickeningly sweet chirp to his voice. Amaury wasn't amused.

"You don't have to rub it in, you know." He turned so that he could aim his glare at Angel, but all he ended up doing was tripping on a root he hadn't seen and dropping all the burn heals on the ground. He winced and gritted his teeth as he realised that he had scrapped his bare knee. He shuddered at the small cuts and drops of blood that had mixed with dirt and grass he had landed on.

"Plusle~" Angel said one more time, turning his head to the side cutely as he fluttered his eyes.

"You're an evil creature, you know?" Amaury grumbled at the electric type.

The plusle looked up in mock thought before nodding with a smirk on his little features.

A giggle interrupted them, a good thing too because Amaury was losing his patience with Angel and nearly ready to attack the little guy.

A choice that sorely would have been met with a high voltage response on Angel's part.

Both trainer and pokémon looked towards the source of the giggle.

It was a girl, probably the same age as Amaury. Regardless, she was about the same height.

She wore a suit jacket, fiery red in colour with a matching tie. Her skirt stopped at the knee and was matt black. Her shoes matched her jacket.

Amaury found himself interested in two key features of her appearance. She had a rather nice looking black belt that seemed to only be there for style's sake, with an interesting fire themed belt buckle.

The other eye catching accessory was her black hair band. It was a simple thing really, it had a bow on the side. It was only really noticeable because of how it contrasted her fire coloured hair.

Amaury stared at the hair band for some time, wondering to himself why such a simple thing interested him so much. Regardless, he knew one thing.

 _'_ _I want it.'_

"Oh, how rude of me. Are you alright?" The girl had some sneaked up to him well he was analysing her outfit.

She held her hand out, waiting for him to grab it. He did and she pulled him up.

"I'm Colette. What's your name?" She asked with a smile. Amaury returned a nervous smile. Mostly because she hadn't let go of his hand.

"Um, my name is Amaury." Colette blinked at him a couple times, and he could see her mouth move as she tried to silently mimic the pronunciation. He raised a brow at this, but didn't say anything.

It was never a good idea to be rude to people you hoped to trade with.

"Amaury! I like it." Amaury looked around nervously.

Thankfully a distraction in the form of a plusle made itself known. In a second Angel at climbed up Amaury's body and found a resting point on his left shoulder.

Angel looked at Colette and put on a cute, but fake, smile and waved.

"Plusle!"

Colette's face exploded into a huge smile. Her hand held her cheeks as she stared at the cute pokémon before her.

"Oh my gosh it's so cute, I want one, can I have yours? No, that's rude of me to ask, it's just so cute!" She kept rambling on like this, only stopping for a quick breath every now and again.

Amaury glanced at Angel, annoyance clear on his face.

"Did you use Charm on her?"

Angel smirked, "Plusle."

"Might I ask why?" Amaury wondered if he should be more annoyed with Angel for basically brain washing someone they didn't know, but it wasn't the first time and it probably wouldn't be the last.

Angel looked at him with a smile and pointed towards Colette's hair band.

Amaury blushed. He should have known, "So you noticed me staring?"

"Plusle." Angel chirped with a nod.

"So why'd you feel like charming her? Just to tell me you know?" Amaury was starting to wonder about his partner's moral compass.

Angel shook his head, and pointed at Amaury's hat.

He took it off in confusion, "What's my hat got to do with anything?"

Angel sighed, then pointed at the hat, then the hair band, then back to the hat.

Amaury looked at Angel in confusion, "Are you telling me to trade one for the other?"

Angel nodded with tiny smile on his face.

"But what if she makes fun of me for asking?" A hint of worry found its way to his voice.

"Make fun of you for what?" Colette asked.

The sudden interruption caused both Amaury and Angel to scream in shock. Thankfully it wasn't too loud.

Both trainer and pokémon took deep calming breaths, till Amaury realised that there was still a girl standing in front of him that was probably confused at this point.

"Um, would you like to trade?"

Colette automatically shook her head, "Sorry, your plusle's cute, but I'm too attached to my own pokémon to trade her away."

Amaury started waving his arms around frantically.

"No, not pokémon!"

Now Colette was confused, evident by the way she turned her head to the side.

"Then what are we trading?"

Amaury searched his mind for something, anything that he could say.

"Angel, my plusle, like's your hair band!"

In that moment two things happened. Colette looked at Angel and started going about how cute that was. Angel also glared at Amaury.

 _'_ _Oh great, this shtick. Lovely.'_ Angel thought to himself. Wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and Angel was slowly beginning to hate it when it did.

"So…what would you want for your hair band?" Amaury asked with a blush.

Colette seemed to look up in thought, before smiling at him, "How about this, I'll give you my hair band, if you give me your cap AND help me find my way through this forest."

Amaury glanced at his pokémon nervously.

Angel rolled his eyes, but nodded anyways.

"Well we were going that way anyways." Amaury said with a grin.

"Great, this way!" Colette twirled on her heel and started walking.

Amaury was going to follow her, till he left a light shock. He glanced at Angel, who was pointing at all the burn heals still thrown around the forest floor.

Amaury lightly chuckled and quickly picked up the medical items, then he started walking after Colette.

They walked in silence for a couple minutes. Angel had started walking slower, likewise Amaury had slowed down to keep pace. There was now a fair distance between Amaury and Colette.

Angel glared at his trainer as they walked.

"Plusle." His tone was harsh, or as harsh as a plusle could manage.

"I know." Amaury hissed back through gritted teeth. He looked at Angel with depressed eyes.

"Plusle." He kept this tone, and slipped in some long standing annoyance.

"What do you want me to do, Angel? I'm not a pokémon, stuff isn't that simple."

Angel shook his head. It was a long standing argument between pokémon and trainer. He'd just keep going at it till his point was fully understood.

Angel rolled his eyes at his thought, and softly smiled up at Amaury. He saw it and smiled back.

"So we good?"

"Plusle…" He waved a hand, as if waving away the conflict.

"Fluffy use teleport, come and go!" Colette yelled.

In a flash of psychic energy a smeargle appeared between Angel and Amaury, quickly grabbed Angel, and before the plusle could react the smeargle had teleported again.

Amaury's attention had snapped to Colette in an instance. The smeargle, named Fluffy, had appeared before her and handed her Angel.

"So cute!" Colette said to the tiny pokémon now in her arms. Angel had a blank expression on his face, and despite the fact that he was being held tightly he still managed glance back at Amaury.

"Colette what are you doing? Let Angel go!"

Colette looked up in mock thought before looking back at Amaury with a small smile, "Sorry! Can't do that. A Pokémon this cute can't be allowed to be left with a trainer as non-fabulous as _you!_ " She stuck her tongue, twirled around and started running off, Fluffy close behind.

Amaury's eyes widened in shock, she was running from him. With Angel! Not sparing a thought on the burn heals Amaury jumped up from the ground and gave chase.

Before they could get very far, a red blur jumped out of a tree. Colette stopped with a smile, whereas Amaury stopped so he could focus on the blur.

"Don't hurt him too much, Calcifer." A new voice spoke. Amaury's eye wandered around the area, but couldn't find the owner.

Then he stopped worrying about people he couldn't see, when that red blur stopped in front of him.

It was a Pansear, who had a wide smile on his face. Amaury could only assume that the Pansear was the Calcifer that the voice mentioned.

The fire monkey waved at Amaury, who slowly waved back. Then with little warning Calcifer took in a deep breath before unleashing a blast flames in Amaury's general direction. With a second's warning Amaury fell back, the sweat on his brow the only indication of his close encounter with fire.

 _'_ _Even worse, despite nearly being set on fire, I'm trying to figure out what attack that was.'_

"I said _don't_ hurt him too much. Not to kill him." A pale skinned man in a very expensive black suit walked around from behind a tree and stood by Colette, "Didn't I say that?"

"You sure did, but you should know by now that Calcifer isn't very good at that self-control stuff." Colette shrugged.

The man rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, just help me out."

Colette nodded, "Right, Fluffy?"

Fluffy teleported next to Calcifer.

Amaury gulped. He was laid on the ground and there were two trainers and their pokémon standing between him and Angel.

 _'_ _I'm sorry Angel.'_

"Headbutt." Amaury, Colette, Fluffy, Calcifer, and the man all glanced at once behind them.

A Zigzagoon seemed to appear out of thin air, before smashing his head against Calcifer.

The monkey stumbled back well holding his head, "SEAR!"

"Now answer me _very_ carefully. Are you trying to steal this kid's pokémon?" All eyes snapped to the voice.

They weren't expecting Olivia.

* * *

 _I've learned something about myself. I shouldn't stop writing a chapter for several months and then just pick them up. It won't go well._


End file.
